Chapter 1392: The Battle Between Wolf and Mastiff

When the thirty-five-minute red-grade Calamity Snow stopped, Calamity Grass of various colors pierced through the pale yellow accumulated snow, emitting the dangerous aura unique to the Calamity Snow disaster period.

The lords of the human territories switched on flashlights and electric lamps, hurrying to clear snow from the tops and exteriors of the greenhouses and to remove Calamity-evolved plants that kept shooting up in the farmlands.

Only one duty officer remained in the Northern District One inspection team's dormitory; the rest of the team members had all gone out, either patrolling the isolation belts or rushing to territories hit hard by the disaster to rescue greenhouses and hothouses collapsed by the heavy snow.

Inside the Ninth Planting Center's 368 steel-frame greenhouses, 50 steel-frame hothouses, and 6 earthen-wall bamboo-and-wood hothouses, the lights were bright; one or two people in each structure were clearing Calamity Grass and Calamity-evolved crops, while more than 140 people outside the greenhouses were shoveling snow and patrolling.

When the red-grade Calamity Snow disaster struck, aside from children under 12, family members caring for children, and family members incapable of labor, all 561 staff members and 86 family members in the center joined the emergency rescue and disaster relief. Among those 86 family members were 37 children aged 12 to 15.

Some of these people had only one arm, some had only one leg, and some had no legs at all; sitting in wheelchairs, they were responsible for spotting Calamity-evolved plants, illuminating them with flashlights, and helping their colleagues inside the greenhouses speed up the clearing work.

The only manager of the Ninth Center not on duty—Director Xia Qing—was at this moment standing with her back to the outside at the entrance of a spacious, tall cave on Mountain Thirty-Seven.

Behind her was a valley covered in accumulated snow; ahead of her, three wolves and three mastiffs had already spread into formation.

The sharp magnetic fields released by six rapidly growing aggressive Calamity-evolved plants stimulated the spot between her brows, yet none of it could draw even the tiniest fraction of her attention away from the six motionless beasts inside the cave.

Directly in front of her was the evolved wolf whose prefrontal cortex had been excised; to her right front was the old wolf; to her left front was the broken-waist wolf. One person and two wolves were cheering on this rescued wolf, urging it to fight, to take revenge!

"Wooo—"

The old wolf in front of Xia Qing let out a majestic roar and looked back at the companion standing in the middle.

The old wolf's meaning was clear even to Xia Qing wearing her low-light night-vision goggles, but the evolved wolf in front of her—wearing a jaw-stone necklace, having eaten green-light jerky, and having drunk uncontaminated spring water and X nutrient solution—stood dumbly in place.

"Wooo—"

The old wolf urged again, and seeing its companion still unresponsive, bared its fangs and roared in fury, "Aooo—woo!!!"

"Woof! Woof! Woof!!!"

The old wolf's roar failed to rouse the fighting spirit of the emaciated evolved wolf, but the three mastiffs opposite reacted.

The sound bursting from deep in the mastiffs' chests was thick, hoarse, and extremely penetrating; it drowned out the old wolf's howl, reverberated through the valley, and hammered against Xia Qing's eardrums. She wanted to tear off her protective mask and howl back, but the wolf in front of her still stood numbly.

Seeing its state, Xia Qing confirmed that it could no longer understand the meaning of howling, and could no longer feel anger or fear because of it.

Seeing that the three wolves did not respond, the three mastiffs grew bolder, barking loudly as they slapped the rocks, making lunging and biting motions to keep up the pressure, trying to scare their opponents into retreat.

Faced with the enemy's provocation, Old Four and the wolf in the middle still did not move. The broken-waist wolf could hold back no longer; it leapt to Xia Qing's side and pawed at the protective suit pocket that held her food.

Xia Qing understood. Without taking the small pack of freeze-dried meat from her pocket, she reached directly into the side pouch of her backpack, pulled out a large pack of yellow-light freeze-dried meat, tore open the packaging, and hurled it at the three mastiffs.

The evolved wolf in front of her charged out, but its target was not battle—it was seizing the food.

This evolved wolf, whose prefrontal cortex had been excised, had lost all the higher cognitive abilities that had made it a successful wolf; only the instinctive craving for food remained. Strictly speaking, it could no longer be counted as a "wolf."

When the mastiff charging at the very front lunged forward to bite the neck of the "wolf" picking up the freeze-dried meat, the old wolf let out an angry howl and charged over, slamming the open-mouthed mastiff flying, then turned and slammed into another mastiff.

It did not use fangs and claws because Xia Qing did not permit it to kill the mastiffs. The three mastiffs were not weak in fighting power, but they were no match for the strength-and-speed evolved Wolf King; again and again they were knocked or slapped aside.

The old wolf fought on, while the evolved wolf whose cortex had been excised remained unmoved, continuing to pick up and eat the freeze-dried meat Xia Qing had thrown out.

It had just drunk a vial of X nutrient solution, so its physical energy was abundant, but its stomach was empty, so it instinctively felt "hungry" and wanted to eat.

After the old wolf drove back the three mastiffs and pinned the last piece of freeze-dried meat under its paw, the foraging "wolf" rushed to its side and opened its mouth to bite its paw; the old wolf let out an angry howl of intimidation.

But this "wolf," which no longer knew fear and could not restrain its craving for food, could not understand the meaning of the Wolf King's angry howl at all; after being slapped aside, it still charged forward to seize the food.

……

When it got up for the fifth time and charged forward limping on one leg, the old wolf roared in fury, lowered its head, and bit savagely into its neck.

"Ka-ao! Ao! Ao……"

The evolved wolf's short, coughing-like cries of agony reverberated through the valley, then faded.

The old wolf raised its head, opened its mouth stained with the blood of its own kind, and let out a long, desolate howl.

The three mastiffs tucked their tails and lowered their bodies as they charged toward the cave entrance; having witnessed the old wolf's fighting power, they voluntarily gave way, intending to withdraw from the conflict zone.

Without Xia Qing needing to act, the broken-waist wolf charged up and slammed the three mastiffs—about the same size as itself—back, using action to tell these three mastiffs—they could not escape.

Xia Qing took out the ropes and muzzles for restraining mastiffs, intending to tie them up and take them back; these three were her and Broken-Waist's spoils, and bringing them back could be exchanged for quite a few points.

Realizing they could not escape, the three brave mastiffs stood tall and bared their fangs; they had been driven into a desperate situation and resolved to fight to the death!

"Aooo————"

A tiger's roar that shook the mountains and forest rang out above the valley; Blind-Eye Tiger landed steadily at the cave entrance and stood behind Xia Qing.

The old wolf's howl had alarmed the lord of this territory, who had come to check on the situation.

The old wolf stopped howling and positioned itself between the broken-waist wolf, Xia Qing, and the three mastiffs.

The broken-waist wolf let out a discontented growl. Xia Qing, wearing her low-light night-vision goggles, looked back at the Blind-Eye Tiger, which showed no intent to attack, then looked back at the old wolf in front of her.

The light here was too dim for Xia Qing to clearly capture the old wolf's gaze and expression, so she could only ask aloud, "Old Four, Broken-Waist and I want to take these three mastiffs back to the cave on the other side. You called the Blind-Eye Tiger here and now you're blocking the middle—what do you want to do?"

Before the old wolf could answer, the strongest mastiff behind it seized the chance and lunged forward to bite the old wolf's back.

The Blind-Eye Tiger leapt over Xia Qing's head, arriving later but striking first, and raked the mastiff hard with one claw.

A bright line of blood immediately appeared on the mastiff's body—it had drawn blood.

The old wolf let out a stern low growl; the Blind-Eye Tiger sheathed its fangs, swung its tail-whip, and intimidated the mastiffs.

As the remaining two mastiffs howled and charged at Old Four and the Blind-Eye Tiger, Xia Qing and the broken-waist wolf moved at the same time and pinned them down. Xia Qing manually muzzled the mastiffs shut and asked again, "Old Four, what do you want to do?"

Old Four used its hind paw to pin down the mastiff, then raised its bloodstained right forepaw and wrote two characters on the ground:

Exchange.

Xia Qing paused for a few seconds before asking, "You want to exchange points for these three mastiffs?"

Old Four, its face solemn, nodded.

Xia Qing asked again, "If you exchange for them, are you going to kill them?"

Old Four did not nod.

Xia Qing thought for another moment, "You want them to join your wolf pack?"

Old Four slowly nodded.

Before the Calamity, the mastiffs guarding the ranches and the wolf packs hunting cattle and sheep were enemies; after the Calamity, could they become companions?

Could one of these three mastiffs be a brain-domain evolver? It was too dark for her to tell.

Xia Qing turned to ask the Broken-Waist Wolf, "Hey, Broken-Waist, do you agree to trade these three Tibetan Mastiffs to Old Four?"